


The Prankster Pranked

by thunderbird_dragon



Category: Thunderbirds, fan art - Fandom, thunderbirds are go
Genre: Family, Fan Art, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-04-30 22:45:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14507112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderbird_dragon/pseuds/thunderbird_dragon
Summary: Jeff's feeling a little melancholy but cheers up a considerably when he discovers an old discarded prank and sees an opportunity for a little revenge!





	The Prankster Pranked

                                  

 

Jeff Tracy was in a melancholy mood, he reached for the photo frame on the shelf and went to sit on the old leather chesterfield sofa under the window of the downstairs den.

There, he permitted himself a smile at the small figure in the photo.

He loved the face that beamed up at him with all his heart. The soft blonde hair tousled dry from being in the sea, the still wet swimwear, big brown eyes full of joy and the smile that always brighten his day.

He remembered the afternoon that the photo had been taken so clearly. The little mischief maker had driven him mad, to absolute distraction, having hidden micro alarms in five different places around his office, set to go off repeatedly at five-minute intervals for just long enough to make him search for them, but not enough time to find them.

He laughed, “You were such a little prankster!” Then suddenly, he cried. Long slow tears that fell silently to his chest.

“I miss you so much.” He tilted the photo on to that same chest and allowed himself the indulgence of a quiet while to himself in the total agony of loss for his beloved wife.

It was the sounds of others outside the window that brought him out from it. He sat for a moment or two rebalancing himself then he smiled unexpectedly at the thought that he might still have those micro alarms!

He checked in his memory box, and sure enough, there was an old envelope with the five little discs still inside.

Not much wider or deeper than a dime, the clear plastic alarms had been almost impossible to spot, the board and batteries so small they were almost unnoticeable within the plastic. He smiled down at them, remembering.

Ha! They still worked!

Turning them over in his hand, he noticed the word ‘Interjoker’ stamped into the plastic.

And he allowed another emotion to take over, a wicked smile spreading across his face.

Standing he could look out over the swimming pool.

He chuckled!

Smiling down at the photo again to the small figure smiling back from it. “Lucille, you passed on so many things to your sons, so very many, many good things. But to Gordon you added the gift of mischief-making – you taught him well darling, maybe too well! He still uses Interjoker for his prankstering.” He went to put the photo back on the shelf remembering how Lucille used to call Gordon her mini-me.

“Lucy, yesterday he got me real good, with some strange stuff that gunged all my tools together – he denied it of course, but I knew it was him!”

He tossed the little alarms in his hand thoughtfully.

“Time for some revenge!”

 

In the pool, Gordon was now on his own, swimming methodical lengthsas usual and he would be at it for hours.

Jeff waited until he was swimming away from him, blindsided, before going out and dropped two of the pre-set alarm into each corner of the pool closest to him. Then with an almighty throw he landed one right in the centre, still unseen by Gordon.

Jeff was enjoying himself for the first time that day.

He ran, childlike, through the house, nearing bowling Virgil over in the process.

“Sorry, I’ll explain later!” he offered but carried on running. By then Gordon was on the reverse length, again blindsided as Jeff went right up to the other edge of the pool and, coolly, with the widest of wickedest of grins held out the last two alarms and dropped them in the water.

As he turned, he noticed that Scott and Virgil were both watching him.

He shrugged, much as Gordon would have himself. 'Deny everything and walk away', Jeff told himself.

He merely grinned wildly at his two older sons as he hurtled back to the den to watch what happened.

The first sign of the first alarm was when Gordon stopped swimming and tried to work out whether the sound was above or below the water. His head bobby back and forth until Jeff began to laugh.

He was almost beside himself laughing as he watched Gordon divert from his usual lengths to find the first alarm – then halted again. The alarm must have stopped.

The second alarm sent the boy to the opposite corner, the third to the centre and by then Jeff was crying with laughter, tears now of overwhelming joy rolling down his face.

So many, many times Gordon had got one of his family with something like this. Now Jeff could see the result and began to understand the appeal of pranks.

Gone were his blues, his sorrow left behind him.

Scott and Virgil were at the den door, smiles beaming across their faces at their father’s mysterious joy.

“What the hell…?”

But Jeff was incapable of words, all he could do was to point frantically to his second youngest searching hopelessly for the underwater alarms, surfacing breathlessly, confused as one stopped as another started at either end of the pool.

Gordon had no hope of ever finding them, they were totally invisible underwater. Eventually, they would turn up in the filters but until then, Jeff was determined to admit nothing.

The others had no idea what was actually driving their younger brother nuts out in the pool but agreed it was funny to watch. They recorded some of it for John and Alan, they would replay it at family gatherings, maybe embarrass the hell out of Gordon by showing Lady P. This was gold dust and they were all enjoying it at their brother’s expense.

Gordon stopped swimming and stood in the shallow end, hands on hips, he knew he’d been got, he just wasn’t certain how or by who.

To his credit he was grinning, he would acknowledge to anyone who asked that this was definitely a great prank, worthy of his evil little mind and a fitting come back for all the pranks he’d pulled over the years.

He spotted his father in the window of the den and pointed a finger accusingly at him.

To which Jeff suddenly straightened, innocence at the ready, his hands out, palms upwards in the most perfect of Gordon Tracy ‘it wasn’t me’ stance.

And they recorded that too!

Lucille would have been proud of them all.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Despite it being rife in TAG head cannon, there isn't actually any evidence in the TAG series so far that Gordon has ever pulled a prank, nevertheless the poor lad's reputation seems set in stone. I just thought it would be a nice idea if he got his prankstering genes from his Mom!


End file.
